Lets Tell Secrets
by vichalmers
Summary: Chat Noir and Ladybug tell each other one secret, something nobody knows about them, as a bonding exercise, or so they say. As a result they become closer as allies, hero's and friends.


_My first Miraculous Ladybug story. Its just a oneshot which I have also posted on my tumblr page. I do plan to write a mulit-chapter soon. Please leave a review!_

 _Hugs'n'shit_

 _lil-fledgling_

"You know, we never really talk." Ladybug looked over curiously at her partner, raising a slim black eyebrow over her spotted mask.

"What do you mean? We talk to each other all the time." Chat Noir leaned back against the cool chimneystack, looking at the sprawling city below them.

"No, we banter. There's a difference. We spend so much time together that it seems as if we know each other but we've never actually spent anytime just talking. Learning about one another. You know, being regular friends." Ladybug chuckled, shaking her head.

"Silly kitty. What would we be able to talk about? Our family's our friends? School? Not with out risking revealing our identity's" Chat scowled. He hated how protective of her civilian identity she was. He wanted to know all of her, both Ladybug and the girl she was under the mask, and he had a strong feeling that she wanted to know too. But for some reason...

"Well we don't have to get personal." Chat Noir suggested, carefully studying her face for any sign that she might disagree. "We can always talk about, hobbies, or things we like or..." She wasn't going to go for it. "Or...or we could always tell each other secrets." Ladybug's disapproving face was replaced with one of curiosity and uncharacteristic shyness.

"S-secrets?"

"Yeah!" Chat Noir grew enthusiastic, she might actually go for this! "We can tell each other stuff we've never told anybody before, so that way, if we ever come across each other as regular people, its not like anyone will be talking about it and give our selves away because only the two of us will know. And we'll only ever talk about what we've said when we're Ladybug and Chat Noir. Make sense?" The pretty superhero thought about his words for a minute, considering his concept carefully.

"It's not a terrible idea..." She said slowly, nodding. "And maybe it would help us become closer, bond a little."

'Yes!' Chat thought, doing a little happy dance in his mind. 'become closer, bond, fall in love with me-'

"I was born with cancer." Chat immediately stopped his mental celebration, turning to stare, dumbfounded, at his partner. Ladybug was looking out over the city, speaking slowly and with care.

"I had a tumour near my spine, it was large, and they could operate, but they had to wait until I got bigger. The doctors didn't think I could live that long. And even if I managed to do that, and survive the surgery, there was a good change I would never be able to walk due to the damage that my spinal cord would sustain." She rolled a bit of gravel between her fingers aimlessly, caught up in her story. "They said it was a miracle that I lived, amazing that learned to walk. I was fine for so long but-" She tipped her head back, as if it would keep the tears from falling out. "When I turned 8 it came back." She choked, and tears trickled down her face in fast, hot rivers of hurt and memory. "and I spent almost the entire year in the hospital. The doctors thought I was going to die, my parent's thought I was going to die. I thought-" Ladybug sobbed, and as she did so Chat's arm came around her and pulled the lithe girl into her chest, letting her cry out the painful memories.

"But you lived." Chat whispered softly. "Look at you. You lived, you fought and won and you're here with me today because of that spirit." Chat felt her nod her head and Ladybug sniffed.

"Yeah. There were times when I didn't think I could do it, where I just wanted to give up and be at peace. But I did beat it." She moved away from his warm body, but not out from underneath his arm. "When I was healthy enough me and my family moved here, to Paris. We all wanted a fresh start." Ladybug wiped at a wayward tear and gave Chat a watery smile.

"I've never told anyone that. I don't want their pity and sympathy, or for people to treat me differently because they think I might break. I'm just me, you know?" And in a strange way, he did know. Even though Chat Noir and Adrian Agreste appeared to be two different people, they really weren't. They were one in the same, just like Ladybug and who ever she really was. Maybe only themselves knew that, but in the end, only they were the ones who really mattered. And when the day came that they were ready to reveal their identity's to each other Chat Noir and Ladybug would no longer be alone with themselves, their secrets would be shared, a burden eased by two and it would be an incredible relief. But, until then, they could play their secrets game and grow closer, all while being none the wiser to who they really were.

"Well kitty cat. I've spilled the bean. Now it's your turn." Chat Noir rocked back from where he was sitting, rubbing the back of his head self consciously.

"I-I don't really have any secrets actually…"

"What do you mean you don't have any secrets?! This was your idea, remember?"

"Well I didn't really think it through so-"

"Ugh, Chat, you are impossible." Ladybug crossed her arms and looked away and for a moment Chat felt as if their disagreement was all good natured, and then why was she seem so upset? Then he realized how unfair it all was. She had shared something so deep, so personal, something she hadn't told anyone, and he just bailed on her. Off handedly saying he had nothing to tell her in return with out really giving it time and thought.

"Well, um," Chat sighed and leaned his forearms against his knees, looking down at the long drop to the pavement below. "I saw a murder once." Ladybug turned, ever so slightly, interested in what he had to say.

"It was a few months before I became Chat Noir. I had snuck out of the house because I was mad at my father. He's so strict and I needed freedom. It was an act of rebellion, my first time disobeying him. My last too I guess." Chat cleared his throat, trying to clear the emotion and not give away the unhappiness with his family.

"I was climbing up the fire escape of a building near Rue Malebranche when I heard a lot of yelling. Two people appeared in the alleyway below me and it looked like they were struggling over something. The one man kept yelling, "If you don't let go I'll kill you!" I knew I had to do something. Try and break up the fight or call the police, something. But I was so scared, I had never seen anything like it, I just couldn't move. And then one man pulled out a gun and-" Chat made a gun symbol with his fingers, pretending to pull the trigger faintly. "He shot the guy, just like he said he would. It was at point blank, right in the chest. He never stood a chance." Ladybug saw Chat swallow hard, struggling to say what came next. Tentatively, she reached out her hand and set it on top of his, reassuring him that she was there and cared about him. Surprised, the young hero looked at her, searching her eyes for judgment and reservation, but instead they only help compassion and kindness.

"I was so scared." He continued, finding strength in the touch of her hand. "So terrified I couldn't even call the police, anyone, for help. All I could do was watch the man fall as the other guy just walked away, the packaged they were arguing over under his arm, as if nothing had just happened. For a minute I just sat there and then- I can't even remember how- I was on the ground, holding that man's hand and telling him, asking him, begging him, not to die. That he had to live. He looked at me. And not just at me, but into me, as if he was looking right into my soul. For a minute, it was like we were connected. A-and then he died. I don't know how long I sat there for but a shopkeeper who was open late had heard the gun shot. When I saw him coming, I dunno, I just ran. I realized that I didn't want the police to find me, question me, ask me why I didn't do anything. Why I didn't save his life." Chat sighed and looked at Ladybug, his eyes betraying his regret and sorrow. "I ran away from a crime scene. I saw a cold blooded murder and I never told anyone."

Marinette squeezed his hand gently, easing some of her friend's shame.

"I would have done the same thing if I were you." She said truthfully. "just because you didn't have the courage to do something you should have doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you human. We've all been in situations where we've been too scared to move or act like we know we should, but we learn from those experiences and they make us better people. At least, thats what I think." Her blue eyes glittered with wisdom. "But you did something most people never could. You eased that man's pain, sat with him so he wouldn't be alone in his final moments and that makes you such a great person."

It was then that the teens realized why they had been chosen to take the path of ancient hero's. It was because of the things they had seen and done and survived. The way they had handled what life had thrown at them and the fact that they had come out on top and become better people. It was their strength and heart, their irate sense of justice that made them Chat Noir and Ladybug.

They were chosen for this life and only they could live it. Because of what they had seen. What they had done. And who they had decided to become from the aftermath of their tragedies.


End file.
